U.S. rabbis: McCain attacks on Obama creeping toward 'hate speech'

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Written by Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
Category: News News
Published: 17 October 2008 17 October 2008
Last Updated: 17 October 2008 17 October 2008
Created: 17 October 2008 17 October 2008
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According to the rabbis, the McCain campaign has deliberately stressed Obama's middle name - Hussein - as if to insinuate the candidate's Muslim background, a contentious rumor circulating since the start of the campaign.

"They [the McCain campaign] recently used a uniformed sheriff to warm up the crowd at a rallyby emphasize the senator's middle name," the rabbis wrote. "At another event Senator McCain seemed shocked when one of his supporters stated that Senator Obama was an 'Arab.' That false belief is the fruit of the McCain campaign's emphasizing Senator Obama's middle name."

The rabbis also accused Vice Presidential candidate Palin of asserting that "Senator Obama pals around with terrorists," a claim that denounced as "false" and "built on three distortions and a lie."

"In twenty-first century America, no word is more emotionally loaded than 'terrorist,'" they wrote. "Republican operatives who managed to convince American to believe the lie that the government of Iraq was connected to Osama bin Laden, think they can now convince Americans of another big lie, that 1960s campus radical William Ayers is connected to contemporary terrorists and that he is a close, influential friend of Senator Obama."

The liberal group also lashed out at their opponents in the Republican Jewish Coalition, which it said "falsely labels Senator Obama as
'reckless on Israel.'

"They [Republican Jews] know that in the Jewish community this is the moral equivalent of crying fire in a crowded theater," the liberal rabbis said, adding: "The RJC approach harkens back to the classic Republican red baiting tactics of Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon from the early fifties."

"We have put our credibility as rabbis who love Israel on the line to publicly endorse Senator Obama for President because of the smears and lies coming from the other side," wrote the rabbis.

"Never before in the history of the United States has a group of rabbis come together on this scale to work on behalf on a candidate for president."

An annual survey published last month by the American Jewish Committee on Thursday revealed that American Jewish voters Obama over McCain for U.S. president by a margin of 57-30 percent.

The surprising figure to emerge from the survey was the unexpectedly large number of undecided voters, at 13 percent.

Though the percentage of Jews in the U.S. is merely 2 percent, 4 percent of the votes in the presidential elections are generally cast by American Jews. In certain states, such as Florida, the Jewish vote is considered crucial.

In addition, more than 40 percent of American Jews contribute to presidential campaigns, comprising one fifth of all campaign contributions.
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